1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manuscript conveyer guide used for a manuscript reader unit in image-forming machines such as a copier, a facsimile, a printer and a scanner. More specifically, the invention relates to a member used as a guide for conveying a manuscript, that is placed adjacent to a contact glass plate and for guiding the manuscript discharged from the contact glass plate at the time when the manuscript moving on the contact glass plate is read out by using an optical system arranged under the contact glass plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the image-forming apparatus based on the electrophotographic method, the surface of the photosensitive material is uniformly charged to a predetermined polarity, an electrostatic image is formed by being exposed to image-bearing light irradiated based upon predetermined manuscript data, a toner image is formed by developing the electric charge image, and the toner image is transferred onto a predetermined paper and is fixed thereon to thereby form the image. In this image-forming apparatus, the manuscript data are obtained by irradiating the manuscript with light and by reading the reflected light by a CCD element. This holds in the image reader unit such as a scanner, too.
In the apparatus that reads image as described above, it is a widely accepted practice to read the manuscript image by automatically feeding the manuscript and irradiating the manuscript passing on the contact plate with light. Most of the facsimiles and copiers for business use are provided with the above reader mechanism. When the manuscript image of the manuscript passing on the contact glass plate are to be read out as described above, a manuscript conveyer guide is usually provided neighboring the contact glass on the side of discharging the manuscript (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 9-37023).
In the above conveyer guide, the upper surface is an inclined guide surface, the manuscript that has passed on the contact glass plate is fed upward along the guide surface and is discharged onto a predetermined manuscript tray.
When the conveyer guide (hereinafter often referred to as downstream conveyer guide) is provided neighboring the contact glass plate on the manuscript discharge side, however, there arouses a problem in that the manuscript is not evenly read out. This tendency becomes conspicuous particularly when the guide surface of the downstream conveyer guide is steeply inclined relative to the contact glass surface (horizontal surface) or when the manuscript is conveyed at an increased speed on the contact glass. From the standpoint of realizing the apparatus in a small size, it is desired that the guide surface of the downstream conveyer guide is an inclined surface that is steeply inclined. From the standpoint of increasing the reading speed, further, it is desired to improve the uneven reading of the manuscript since the manuscript is conveyed at a high speed.